Believe, Achieve, Succeed. In our hands we hold the future.
Appendix 1 to Assessment, Recording and Reporting
Marking Policy.
Rationale
A whole school policy for marking gives continuity and consistency for the staff
and children throughout the school. Marking is a key element in raising standards
throughout the school and its consistent and effective application enables the
children to receive feedback which allows them to celebrate success and
understand how to improve.
Aims
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To help the children make progress by knowing the good points and errors in
their work, and knowing how to continue to improve their work.
To encourage the children by acknowledging correct work with ticks and
positive comments
To enable the children to find their errors and correct them in a neat manner
To enable the children to know what the marking symbols are and how to make
their corrections where necessary.
To reflect the growing complexity of work throughout the school.
Guidelines
We believe that quality marking of children’s work is characterised by:
 Providing children with feedback as quickly as possible after they have
produced the work to be marked. Children tend to forget quickly and written
comments are likely to have much more relevance and impact if the children
have the opportunity to read them soon after they have handed in their work.
 Commenting positively but frankly about how a child has performed. Whilst
marking should encourage children, it should not make them complacent but
provide information about how they are doing in relation to national
performance standards.
 Initially referring to the quality features of the piece of work, then providing
the child with a clear target for how they can move forward and improve the
quality of their work, through ‘going green’ for positive features and ‘red’ for
areas to develop. Staff will use the staircase symbol to show ‘next steps’ for
learning.
 If poor quality work is being marked, the teacher should concentrate upon one
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specific feature of the work that the child needs to improve upon. This may
also be appropriate for work of a higher quality. Children should not be given
too many things to think about at once.
Marking comments should refer specifically to the Learning objectives or their
targeted learning. Other areas will be recorded through the marking code.
Teacher comments must be legible — the teacher’s own handwriting is a model
for the children’s.
Providing children with sufficient time to read and think about the teacher’s
comments (and ask questions) when their work is handed back to them. We aim
to create a culture where children have time to think about what they have
done well and how they can improve.
Teachers modelling to children how their work could have been improved by
writing something out in the correct way or sharing it in plenary sessions.
Teachers adopting an analytical and diagnostic approach to marking children’s
work.
On occasions children may mark other children's work, in coloured pencil, when
directed by teacher to do so. This will be recorded through the use of a
different colour to show it has been peer marked. All work is to be dated, e.g.
17th February 2012 on written work, 17.02.12 on Mathematical work.
Teacher may date work for those children who require it.
Children will make self assessments to show how they felt they coped with the
work before handing it in. This will be done through a code of smiley faces to
express how comfortable they were with the work and should be accompanied
by a comment as soon as the child is able to record which aspects they found
challenging or too easy.
Merit marks will be recorded and ‘crossed off’ as they are recorded on the
chart in the classroom.
Writing
KS1
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It should be appreciated that some children will not be able to read their
comments but will get verbal feedback. Written comments are there for
interested readers e.g. parents.
Work is looked at with the children and ticked when correct. If verbal
comments are made a VF can be recorded as evidence of verbal feedback.
A positive comment may be added at the end of the work, a stamp or sticker
will be used to reward the child for exceptional effort or achievement, and
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occasionally the child may go to the Head to show their work as an extra
reward.
One
key
word
may
be
selected
by
the
teacher
for
Look/Say/Cover/Write/Check (L/S/C/W/C) at the bottom of the page, or
where a child has formed a letter incorrectly the correct letter formation
may be practiced at the bottom of the page.
Up to 3 words may be selected for L/S/C/W/C as the children progress
through Y1.
KS1 children have word mats to help them spell words correctly.
The teacher underlines miss-spelt words when the child brings work and
corrected above by the child using wordbooks, dictionaries, or with the help
of the teacher.
If it is a very long piece, words may be corrected directly by the teacher.
L/S/C/W/C is also used at the teacher's discretion.
They use the same symbols key as the teachers as illustrated below:green
c
sp
//
-
this part of the work is really good
Capital letter (needed)
spelling error (underlined) and sp written in the margin .
paragraphs
Marking code
VF – verbal feedback
S – supported by an adult.
Writing
KS2
The use of white boards used individually, in pairs and in groups, has radically
altered the ways in which the drafting process is carried out and children often
‘try out’ ideas before they commit them to paper.
Editing is carried out at this drafting stage and the children are encouraged to be
thorough editors.
The children are also encouraged to edit each other’s work.
The concept of ‘Response Partners’ can be used effectively in KS2 where the
children are taught to develop the skills of a critical friend.
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They use the same symbols key as the teachers as illustrated below:green
p
c

sp
//
g
m
v
/
T
-
this part of the work is really good
punctuation (wrong or omitted)
Capital letter (needed)
omission (letter or word)
spelling error (underlined) and sp written in the margin .
paragraphs
target – not met your target
grammatical error
make the meaning clear
vocabulary – better vocabulary should be chosen
start a new line for speech
Obviously the use of dictionaries and spell checkers where available is encouraged
at all times and teachers may choose to highlight words in the child’s work for
Look/Cover/Write/Check at the bottom of the page. These may form the focus
for further word level work.
Mathematics
KS1
Correct work is ticked and a comment or sticker/stamp may be added.
The following symbols are used where errors occur:

__
(error)
(for correct answer to be put in)
(underlining for a reversed number, which is then corrected 3 times either
over dotted examples done by teacher or copying the teachers correct
example).
KS2
The following symbols are used:
(incorrect)
Children should not draw boxes round calculations but write them in rows
separated by a double row. If they have to put down figures in a column care
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should be taken to make sure that the figures are in the correct place e.g. Th H T
U
All work is written in pencil thus allowing changes to calculations without a messy
crossing out.
Children should be trained, encouraged and praised for writing numbers in the
squares (that is why they are there and encourages the children to understand
place value).
The shortened version of the date should be at the top of each single piece of
work and underlined carefully with a ruler.
A very short summary of the learning objective should be written at the start of
each piece of work. In KS1 this may be done by teachers or children.
All lines must be drawn with a ruler.
Policy reviewed: January 2015
To be reviewed: January 2016
Ratified by Curriculum and Standards Committee on behalf of the
Governors:
Mary Potter
13/1/15
(signed: Chair of Curriculum and Standards Committee)
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Appendix A
Sampling feedback
Date:
Subject:
Year:
Teacher:
Children’s
work  AA:
sampled
 A:
 BA:
Does the work fit with the
planning?
Is the work carefully thought
out by the child?
Does the marking let the child
know what has been done
correctly and incorrectly?
Does the marking give feedback to
the child on how to do better next
time?
Is the work well presented?
 Dated/L.O.
 Underlining
 Good handwriting
 Tidily written
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Is
the
learning
objective
obvious, written either by the
child or the teacher?
Is there enough evidence that
the child has understood the
objective?
Is
there
evidence
of
differentiated work?
Is there evidence of high
expectations by the teacher?
General comments
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